Big Changes
by blueskies723
Summary: Scenes in "Lead" and Alternate section of "Sweet Revenge".After a week vacation, Danielle Novak finds Alex Cabot in the office instead of Kim Greyleck. That's not the only thing she didn't expect. One Shot.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the SVU characters. The only character I own is Danielle Novak, forever and .

**Author's Note: **As soon as I heard that Alex Cabot was going to be back on the show, I wanted to write a fanfic about how Danielle Novak dealt with it(If anyone has read "Sweet Revenge", you know why. Also, not reccommended, but you should probably read that if you haven't already). But if you don't want to read it, I'll give you the quick background. Danielle Novak is Casey's sister, and was working under Kim Greyleck in a field study until Alex came back. Also, as noted in "Breaking Down"(the fifth book of the Casey Series), Casey was suspended for a year and a half instead of first episode of Alex returning was the perfect episode to write about. Good job writers...for once. Lead was the best episode this season.

Well, that's all for the author's note. I hope you enjoy it. Also, if there are any "The Office" fans out there, watch out for a crossover! Well, the crossover will only deal with Greyleck and the Novaks on the SVU side. But let's face it, that might be hilarious. :)

Read and enjoy,

-blueskies723

* * *

After a week of vacation from her field study, Danielle Novak was ready to go back to SVU and work with Greyleck. The both of them still don't get along, and that's the major reason why Danielle went to McCoy and asked for a week vacation from the field study. Sometimes it's too stressful to work under a lawyer like Greyleck.

Danielle walks down the hallway of the ADA offices. She was about to talk to McCoy about adding another week, but Casey Novak refused to let that happen. So as she walked passed her office, she noticed that the blinds were actually open. She thought that was odd, because Greyleck never opened the window blinds to the office.

When Danielle opened the door to the office, she didn't see Kim Greyleck sitting at the desk.

"Alex?"

"Danielle, I'm surprised that you came in early" Alex said, looking up to her with a smile on her face.

"I always come in at this time. With Greyleck, it's required" Danielle said, closing the door and still somewhat freaking out about the fact that she was in the same room as Alex Cabot.

"She wants you to come in here at eight?"

"Yes. Are you sure you're real or am I having a dream and not realizing it?"

Alex started to chuckle as Danielle slowly sat down at her own desk.

"I'm sure that if it was a dream, it wouldn't be me in this office. Your sister would be the one sitting here, not me" Alex joked.

"This might be true. So what happened to Kim?" Danielle asked.

"The Justice Department called her back to DC"

"I hope she's in DC forever, I hope."

"Unfortunately, I'm only here for a few weeks" Alex said.

"Damn. But why are you working here for a few weeks?" Danielle asked.

" McCoy called me in to take over."

"That's not a surprise. You've worked here before."

"Speaking of work, we have a lot of it" Alex said, getting up from her desk "You need to catch up on knowing the current case"

Alex walked over and handed Danielle a folder of paperwork. Danielle opened the folder as Alex continued talking.

"We have arraignment tomorrow. I don't expect you to be there though since you just got back. But the truth is, you have a lot of reading to do today."

* * *

_"We have been burned by faulty DNA before"_

After hearing what the judge said, Alex wondered what she meant.

The judge made her ruling to let the defendant go, and Alex turned to Olivia.

"Alex, this isn't your fault" Olivia said

"Yes, it is. If-"

"The judge's ruling had nothing to do with you"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Did you ever wonder why Casey Novak was suspended?" Olivia asked

Alex had to think about the situation for a minute. Danielle wouldn't have said anything, because Olivia told her about Danielle's outburst when Kim Greyleck said something about her sister at the beginning of the year. Then Alex had a smirk on her face.

"Yes, but I think I'll finally get the answer."

* * *

Alex Cabot walked in the door to see Danielle Novak eating her homemade lunch.

"You're eating a salad for lunch?" Alex asked "That's original."

"For your information, Casey made this salad for me."

Alex found the best opportunity to bring up why Casey Novak was suspended.

"Speaking of her sister, she's the reason why we couldn't put Lynnwood in jail for arraignment."

Danielle dropped her fork into the salad. Alex already knew that it was a mistake; she never wanted to know what an angry Danielle Novak looked like.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, the judge dismissed the case because our evidence was one hundred percent and she didn't want to take in any more faulty evidence..."

"If you're going to blame Casey because the judge remembered what the hell happened in her last case, why don't you go to my apartment and talk to her yourself?" Danielle snapped "I already dealt with Greyleck talking shit, and I definitely don't want to hear it from you!"

Danielle picked up the fork from her salad and aggressively stabbed a few pieces of lettuce. Alex watched the angry young woman eating her salad at her desk. She turned around and left the office, putting all the pieces together.

She knew the general reason why Casey Novak was suspended.

* * *

Later that day, Danielle Novak had a superstitious feeling that something bad happened at the precinct as she was doing paperwork. She got up, locked the door, and quickly walked in her high heels to her destination.

Ten minutes later, Danielle Novak left the elevator and into the hallway. She noticed some sort of medical team leaving the precinct. She started to walk faster as she turned the corner into the precinct. She saw Alex standing across from George Huang, who was sitting in a chair. As she walked over, she heard Alex saying something but could only make out only part of what she said.

"-not try him because he's retarded."

"No"

"What happened here?"

Alex looked up at Danielle, who was stood next to Huang.

"Other than Lynnwood giving me a head injury, nothing" George said, turning his neck to see Danielle in his view.

"He gave you a head injury? Is that why I saw a medical team leaving?"

"Yes, but I'm fine."

"If you say so" Danielle said

"But I still don't think that he should be punished as a regular adult" Huang said, trying to get Danielle on his side of the argument "He's act likes a child, and only acts on his anger and emotions in a childish way."

"George-"

"Did you interview him?" Danielle asked, interrupting Alex's objection of George telling Danielle what was happening.

"I did and when he found out that I was doctor, he acted out to the point of giving me a head injury."

Alex was furious. She walked passed them and stormed away.

"I'll handle this" Danielle said, watching Alex leave as she started walking a few steps behind left the precinct and was about to turn the corner to the elevator.

"I'm sorry if you're so stubborn about charging someone who doesn't have the mental capacity with murder!"

Danielle shouted as she continued to catch up to Alex. Alex sharply turned around and stopped in her tracks.

"He took his dad's gun and bashed Keppler's brains in! I know for a fact that he knew what he was doing!"

"In your eyes, you do. In my perspective, if he injured Huang after finding out he was a doctor, then I would think that there's a real issue."

"We're not talking about Huang's situation here!"

"You're right, we're not. But if someone has some sort of disorder or mental defect, you don't give them the same sentence that you give a man that has nothing wrong with him!" Danielle said angrily. This was always a touchy subject, especially when her sister was trying the Picard case and wasn't going to give that up either.

"The last time I checked, I was the one who passed the BAR-"

"That has nothing to do with it! I know for a fact that I wouldn't be cruel like you're being right now! I've gone down this road before-"

"If you have an issue with how I do my job as a lawyer, then you can sit at your desk for the rest of the damn trial doing paperwork! I'm not going to deal with some law student telling me what to do!"

Alex stormed off. Danielle just stood there, hearing the loud clicks of high heels until she knew that Alex was in the elevator. Danielle was holding in her tears, and decided that the best thing to do right now was to go home and find Casey.

* * *

Casey was surprised to not hear Danielle walk in the apartment. Her younger sister always made an entrance home every day so when she heard Danielle say hello quietly, Casey almost jumped off the couch. She turned to see Danielle slowly walking in.

"Oh my gosh, Danielle! You scared me!"

"I'm sorry."

Casey immediately knew that Danielle's tone was one of misery. Danielle sat down in the matching chair a few feet away and closed her eyes, reclining the chair and putting her feet up. Casey was confused; Danielle hasn't been that miserable since dealing with a major case with Greyleck.

"Are you okay?"

Danielle opened one of her eyes as she heard Casey's voice.

"What do you think?"

"I think you had a rough day."

"Good job, we have a winner" Danielle said sarcastically, opening both of her eyes.

"What happened?"

"Well I thought working with Cabot was going to be easier than working with Greyleck, but I rather work with Greyleck at this point."

"That's the first time I heard you say that one" Casey said, somewhat shocked that Danielle's view of Greyleck changed "You could go down to DC..."

"I don't miss Greyleck that much. But Alex wants to charge a developmentally challenged nineteen year old boy with murder."

"Is she nuts?"

"She's worse than you were on the Picard case" Danielle sighed.

"I wouldn't go that far. Maybe Cabot will actually realize that you're right, because I know I never did."

"Yeah, but the reason you didn't listen to me is because we're sisters. Sisters usually don't listen to each other all the time" Danielle explained " I didn't listen to you when you said not to bother Greyleck, but I drove off anyway."

"That's true. Don't worry about Alex, she just started working at SVU again" Casey suggested "She'll come around eventually."

"All right, I won't sulk about it" Danielle said "Do we have any cookie dough ice cream that you bought yesterday?"

"Yeah, unless you were sleep walking last night and decided to eat it all."

"Oh aren't you funny..."

Danielle got up from the chair and left for the kitchen. Casey only shook her head with a smile on her face, because all Danielle could think about was her cookie dough ice cream when she had a bad day.

* * *

_"It took guts to come back and I'm glad you did. But you can't afford to forget why you became an ADA in the first place. The Alexander Cabot I remember wouldn't even consider railroading this poor young man."_

Judge Bradley's words rang in Alex's head as she went back to her office a few weeks later. The first part of the trial was over, and she couldn't have been happier. She did forget why she was an ADA in the first place. She wanted to seek justice in every case, especially to the special cases she handled. This was one of those cases.

She realized that Danielle was right; she was being cruel. She remembered all her other cases she dealt with in the past, and realized how much more compassionate she was with defendants that either had a mental illness or defect. And as Alex was in the elevator heading to her office, she realized that Danielle was smarter than most of the other law students she dealt with. Maybe it was because Danielle was following her older sister's footsteps, knowing what to do in almost every situation.

She walked to the office door to find Danielle doing paperwork. That's all Danielle has been doing since their argument, and ever since then, Danielle has been quieter than usual.

Alex opened the door, seeing the law student hard at work. She shut the door and stood there.

"You were right."

Danielle looked up from her paperwork, but decided not to say anything.

"You were right about how I shouldn't have been so stubborn about putting Justin in jail" Alex explained, walking towards Danielle's desk "I just forgot how to work with these cases. The last time I prosecuted a case in this squad was when I was shot, it was such a long time ago..."

"Someone must have given you an epiphany" Danielle said quietly, not looking at Alex but at her paperwork instead.

"Judge Bradley reminded me of what sort of prosecutor I'm supposed to be."

Danielle nodded, but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry about a few weeks ago. I shouldn't have yelled at you" Alex said "I just...a law student has never told me what to do."

"You're dealing with me. I'm the one who had to deal with Greyleck's bullshit and who's related to Casey. Don't worry about it, Casey said that you would come around eventually..."

Danielle continued with the paperwork while Alex stood there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do or say until the both of them heard Danielle's stomach growling loudly in the office. Danielle slowly looked up and saw that Alex had a grin on her face.

"It sounds like you need some lunch. Let's go and grab some food. It's on me."


End file.
